Description:

FA by Terry Andrews and Carl Murray, 1990. Climb the sweet face just right of "For Rocker". The thin crack has a couple of old copperheads that are best ignored. Route actually starts with a boulder problem over a bulge and then move up and left to the small crack and first bolt. Crux is about 5 to 10 feet above the second bolt(about 45 to 50 feet up). Bolts were added after the first ascent of the route (with my permission)!

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made in the shade first ascent

Climbing is all about "holding back" and "letting go". Most of the time, I tend to hold back. On the day that I put up "Made in the Shade", I finally let go.

It was the summer of 1990 or so and I had recently bolted the infamous "Rap Bolters from Hell" on the south face of Lost Dome. Before I had bolted that climb, I had top-roped the line for years to make sure the line would go and to make sure I placed the bolts in good locations. I had found the drilling on "Rap Bolters" to be no fun and really didn't want to place any more bolts.

On this typical sweltering day, Carl Murray and I had climbed a few of the classics on the south face and were exhausted by the heat. Desperately, we looked for a place in the shade and found ourselves near the southeast corner of Lost Dome.

I had often looked at the ten foot long, thin crack up and right of the start of "For a Rocker". The thin crack was now sporting a couple of bashies or copperheads. Although there was obviously no pro to be had below or above the crack, the face below the crack didn't look so bad. However, the smooth looking face above the crack bulged ominously.

Hanging with bold climbers such as Greg Schooley, Duane Raleigh, Jon Frank, and Jimmy Ratzliff in the old days had instilled in me a strong sense of style and "go for it" attitude. I wanted to lead the corner ground up but as I looked at it I started to have doubts. The face above the little overhang about forty feet up just looked too smooth and slick. I was a husband and father of two small children!

So we decided to toprope the climb. We climbed "For a Rocker" and set up the rope. We both found the corner very hard. I toproped the climb twice and fell both times on the upper face above the little overhang. I also fell several times on the boulder problem start, which starts just to the right of the crack and climbs up and left to the crack via very sharp holds.

Just for fun, on my second top-rope attempt, I carried a small rack of small stuff and deeked in a couple of TCUs in the crack with the copperheads. One of the TCUs looked really solid and I was confident that it would hold a fall, unless the thin flake broke! A few feet higher I managed to hang a small "quickie" in a thin horizontal crack just below the ominous crux bulge. This placement looked bad but I left it in because I had carried the quickie on my rack for years and this was the first time I actually had been able to use it. I left all of the gear in and lowered to the ground.

Carl and I then relaxed at the bottom of the climb. As I lay there looking up at the rock, I calmed down and visualized myself climbing the route move by move. What happened next was weird. I looked over at Carl, who was napping about fifteen feet away from me with his back against a tree, and saw a large centipede on the ground about five feet from Carl. These black and orange horrors are always terrifying to see, and as I watched, the thing motored quickly towards sleeping Carl. Without thinking, I grabbed a sharp edged, saucer sized rock and hurled it at the centipede. Carl looked up in horror as the rock I had thrown at him buried the centipede into the ground about three feet from his leg.

Taking that as a good omen, I stood up and wordlessly pulled the rope and tied in. Carl said nothing, but put me on belay.

What followed was cool. I simply flowed through the moves. I wasn't scared. I was in the groove. I quickly dispatched the bottom moves and found myself examining the crux. The crux move is very unique. On a steep face, you get two polished knobs that are about four to five feet apart and you do an iron cross type move to get your feet up. Then you do a little mantle move to get your foot onto one of the knobs. I cruised this and padded my way up the last little slab to the top. It felt wonderful.

Later on, Tony Mayse and I were at the crag and I suggested that it would probably be a good idea to put some bolts in the climb to make it safer. He volunteered for the task and borrowed my gear to hand drill and install two 1/4 inch bolts near the TCU placements. Later on, Jimmy Forrester replaced these bolts with nice 3/8 inch bolts. Since the bolts have been placed, I've climbed the route a couple of times and it always seems harder than it did that first day.

Thinking back, although "Made in the Shade" seemed a good fit at the time, it's a wonder we didn't name the climb something like "Centipede Guts", "Dodge the Rock", or "Scary Terry".